The Hero's Burden
by Klinestife
Summary: Grimm are appearing inside kingdom borders, tensions with the White Fang threaten to boil into a new Faunus war, and an unknown person is murdering hunters. Remnant is spiraling out of control. Even the freshman teams of Beacon Academy are sucked into the chaos as the hunters try to keep the peace, where they're forced to learn a lesson: Being a hero will crush a person.
1. 1: Beginnings (Part 1)

**Beginnings (P1)**

It wasn't that Ruby didn't like parties, she just didn't like parties that Yang threw. She never knew anybody in the party, so she just followed Yang around and introduced herself as 'the sister' to all her friends (who seemed to change every party). There were also the drinks, which Ruby suspected contained a large amount of alcohol (that nobody was supposed to be drinking), so she couldn't have a decent conversation with the people that she actually tried to talk to.

It was the same thing during Yang's congratulatory party. When Yang got her confirmation letter from Beacon, she had called up everybody and made arrangements for a party…the night before the first day of Beacon. Not the best idea, anybody could tell her that, but Yang had somehow managed to not only convince their parents to hold the party, she even got them to buy the drinks.

The party had started hours ago, and it was getting close to 11. Ruby was wandering around the house, looking for her sister. Hopefully, Yang would still have enough of her senses to call off the party so she and the other Beacon graduates at the party can get some sleep for tomorrow.

"Um, excuse me?" Ruby stopped a person who looked like she was still sober.

She looked back at Ruby inquisitively. "…Hey, you're her sister, aren't you?"

"Yep, that's me."

"Huh. You two don't look anything alike."

"We…get that a lot." There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, before Ruby cleared her throat, "So, do you know-"

"Hey, Ruby!" Ruby quickly swiveled towards the sound of the voice. Yang was over on the other side of the living room waving at her, no doubt wanting to introduce her to some more of her friends. Ruby quickly said bye to her brief acquaintance and started making her way past the room. She pushed past the sea of people, all of whom somehow had somebody else to talk to, muttering apologies to the people she bumped into.

"Hi, Yang She said as she walked up to her sister. Yang turned around with a drink in her hands and a slightly loopy look on her face. "Listen-"

"Here she is!" Yang grinned and threw her arm around Ruby and leaned heavily into her, which was extremely awkward for her because of the height difference. "This is my sister, Ruby. Most talented hunter-in-training in Signal Academy right now!" Yang gave everybody around her a sloppy grin. Ruby laughed nervously, as Yang steadily started leaning into her.

"Really? That's high praise coming from her," One of Yang's friend said, "She spent the better part of the last year punching half the instructors through walls."

"And the other half sending them flying." Someone else added. Everyone chuckled as they remembered how Yang was always called to the office to be told to 'dial back'. Ruby brightened up at that – these people seemed sober enough to have a conversation.

"I actually got a lot of help from a lot of people," She said, smile slipping slightly as Yang leaned into her more, "My uncle actually helped me design Crescent Rose."

"Crescent Rose?" A girl spoke up, sounding genuinely curious. "What kind of weapon is it?"

"It's a highly customizable high impact sniper scythe." She said extremely quickly and enthusiastically. Most of the group glanced at each other in confusion. Her grin froze on her face as she scrambled to simplify her explanation.

"It's a scythe with a big gun in it." Someone spoke up. The others aaah'd and nodded. Ruby looked at the speaker appreciatively for bailing her out of that situation.

He shrugged, "I just remembered you from a video of the final combat tests for the second years in Signal," he explained, "Your weapon stood out. A lot."

Ruby grinned at that statement despite herself. "I didn't know they let the seniors look at the underclassmen's recordings." There was a pause. Ruby's smile slipped a bit – did she say something wrong?

One of the others spoke up, "Well…they don't _let_ him per se-"

"No, no. Let's just go with that." He quickly cut her off.

Ruby furrowed her brow in confusion. "What exactly did yo-" Yang suddenly slipped off her shoulder and fell to the floor. The group glanced down at her, not quite sure what to do. Ruby sighed. "Can one of you take care of her? Get her to her room?"

The group murmured various responses, but Ruby assumed the general consensus was an affirmative and walked towards the living room, looking for her parents. _This keeps going on and no one here's going to Beacon tomorrow. They're both police officers, for crying out loud, they're supposed to stop this sort of thing._

"Mom? Dad?" She called out, squeezing her way between two dancing figures. _God, this would be so much easier if I wasn't the shortest one here._

She made her way into the living room, where she clambered onto a desk, careful not to knock over any of the half full cups. She was peeking over the heads of everybody when a voice suddenly boomed from the stairwell.

"Hey, everybody! Settle down for a second, will you?" Ruby turned around quickly towards her father's voice, knocking over a cup into someone's lap. She quickly muttered an apology, but the person only returned a lazy smile.

When the noise in the room stayed at the same volume, he shouted louder, irritated. "HEY! Listen up!" The room immediately quieted down, everyone looking at him.

_You tell them, dad! _Ruby cheered silently, smile on her face.

"I just want to make a toast for my daughter Yang getting into the best hunter school on Remnant!" A cheer rose up around the room, as most of them joined her dad in his toast. Ruby's smile slipped off, "In fact, I know a lot of you guys got in there too, so have an extra toast if you're joining her!"

Ruby face-palmed. Her dad. The police officer. Encouraging minors to drink.

She hopped off the table and made her way out the door, stopping only to habitually grab her headphones and check if Crescent Rose was firmly in its holster on her back

-o-

She made her way to a dust shop called 'From Dust Till Dawn'. It was one of her favorite places to kill time. No other shop updated their weapon magazines as quickly as this one did, or had as many issues of them. She remembered a time when she spent a whole weekend at this shop reading every single one of them. Since then, she had checked in regularly for new issues, to the point where the shop keeper was on a first name basis with her.

"Hello, Ruby." He greeted her as she swung the door open, "Isn't it dangerous for a young lady like you to be out at this time of night?"

"Just had to get out of the house for a little while." She replied, smiling politely.

"Oh? What's wrong?"

"Yang's holding a party to celebrate getting into Beacon and it's still going on. Problem is the ship to Beacon leaves tomorrow morning."

"You weren't enjoying the party?"

"Everyone was older than me and they all knew each other. Wasn't much for me to do."

"Hm. Well, your parents are police officers. I'm sure they're responsible enough."

Ruby remembered her dad telling a room full of teenagers to toast. "You'd be surprised," She said, chuckling. Then she remembered the reason for her visits. "Is the latest issue in? It just came out this afternoon, so I wasn't sure…"

He smiled knowingly. "Right in the back."

Ruby thanked him and went to the back of the store, slipping on her headphones and setting her playlist on loop. She scanned the magazine rack, and found the new issue at the very top. She plucked it from its place and scanned the cover. Weapons: How to Use Dust.

_That's interesting._ Ruby thought. She'd heard of people using dust while forging their weapon and it gave them a special quality, but she didn't have the confidence at the time to do so. _I suppose I can always make Dust bullets to use._ She flipped the book over and looked at the back. It was just a massive logo of the sponsor, the Schnee Dust Company. It was par for the course, nothing too interesting. She opened the magazine and quickly started reading.

It detailed some of the most widely used dust in forging in the first half. Black dust would make the metal much stronger, but also give it a black hue. _That wouldn't have looked very good on Crescent Rose anyway._

Purple dust would make your weapon extremely light, but this was tailored more for normal people. Hunters had naturally high aura levels that augmented their physical prowess to the point where they could wield most every weapon. A lower weight would only cause them to lose precision in their fighting style.

Blue dust would let the weapon become highly receptive to energy, letting the user charge it with any type of energy they want, but this was more of a gimmick than anything else. Most hunters can't find a constant energy source on the field to keep it charged for it to be useful in the long term.

It continued on like that, but Ruby wasn't too interested. She was done with Crescent Rose's forging, after all, and she wasn't too eager on replacing it anytime soon. Instead, she focused more on a section in the second half, where it explained what kind of effect dust has when packed into a bullet. Red dust is the most volatile, and the bullet will explode as soon as it impacts anything. That was the type Yang used for her gauntlets. _I always thought it was a bit…destructive. Effective, sure, but it also blew up everything around it._

Ruby kept reading as the song shifted to a rock song, newly added to her playlist. It wasn't her usual style, but she really liked the lyrics, and the song was catchy too.

_They see you as small and helpless, they see you as just a child…_

Ruby was skimming past the section on purple dust bullets. Nothing too interesting in there, it was more for trickery than anything…

_Surprised when they find out that a warrior will soon run wild._

A hand suddenly clamped on her shoulder and it jerked her out of what she dubbed 'reading mode'. She turned around and saw a man dressed in black and red, wearing sunglasses – _Sunglasses? At night? And why are they red?_ – and holding a sword.

"Hm?" She made an inquisitive sound. The man pointed at his ear, indicating she should take her headphones off. She did so.

"Yes?"

"I said, put your hands up in the air!" He said firmly. When Ruby only returned a quizzical look, he added, "Now!"

Ruby still wasn't quite computing. "Are you…robbing me?" She asked, just to be sure.

"Yes!" He said, quite fed up at this point.

She narrowed her eyes at him, and gave him a grin that slightly unnerved him.

"Oohh…" She said, reaching for Crescent Rose with one hand and taking her headphones off with another.

_We are lightning…_

-o-

"I hope that you realize your actions tonight will not be taken lightly, young lady." The huntress said as she paced in front of the table Ruby sat at, "You put yourself and others in great danger."

Ruby's temper flared up at that. _I was only defending myself and the old man!_

"They started it!" She protested. The huntress ignored her, looking at the screen she was holding.

"If it were up to me, you'd be sent home…"

Ruby swallowed nervously, wondering what her parent's reaction would be. Maybe if she explained to them exactly what happened?

"…with a pat on the back."

She perked up at that, letting relief and hope show on her face. The huntress turned towards her and frowned at her.

"And a slap on the wrist!" Ruby yelped in surprise and barely jerked her hands back in time to avoid said slap on the wrist. She gulped at the crack the wand made when it hit the desk.

"But…there is someone here who would like to meet you."

_Oh god, please don't be my parents. _Ruby thought, panicking slightly. She wasn't looking forward to her parents finding her in a police station.

The huntress stepped aside, and Ruby's panic turned to puzzlement as a man walked in with a plate of cookies in one hand and a mug in the other. Her eyes widened slightly as she realized who he was – he was the headmaster of Beacon Academy!

Before she could say anything, he suddenly leaned in close and stared at her in the eyes. She drew back slightly, unsure of what he wanted.

"Uh…um…" She tried to say something and failed miserably.

"So!" He said loudly, making her jump up slightly in surprise, "Where did you learn to do _this_?" He gestured with his head at the tablet that the huntress was holding up, which had a video of her fight playing on it. _Did they get that from the street camera? _She wondered, but then remembered about his question.

"S-Signal Academy." She said, silently cursing her stutter.

He raised an eyebrow. "They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?" He asked.

"Well…one teacher in particular." Ruby clarified.

"I see…" He muttered quietly. He put the plate of cookies in front of Ruby. She grabbed one slowly and looked at the two of them for some kind of approval. When she got none, she shoved it into her mouth and polished it off in a single bite. Hearing no disapproval from either of the adults, she quickly polished the plate off.

The headmaster was pacing in front of the desk, deep in thought. "It's just that I've only seen one other scythe-wielder of that skill before." He said, not directing it to anyone in particular, "A dusty old crow…"

Ruby knew exactly who he was talking about, and momentarily forgot that she had a mouthful of cookies. "Mmm! Thatsh mah unkul!" She said excitedly, spraying crumbs over the table. She immediately blushed and swallowed.

"Sorry. That's my uncle Qrow!" She thought she saw a flash of recognition in his eyes, and continued, "He's a teacher at Signal! I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing. And now, I'm all like-" She made some fighting noises and struck a few poses to make her point.

One corner of Ozpin's mouth twitched up. "So I've noticed." He put his cup down on the table and sat down opposite of Ruby. "And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?"

_He thinks I'm adorable! _Ruby thought, relieved.

"Well…I want to be a Huntress." She said, putting as much feeling into it as she could.

"You want to slay monsters?" He asked skeptically. She nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah! I only have two more years of training left at Single! And then I'm going to apply to Beacon! You see, my sister's starting there this year, and she's trying to become a Huntress. And I'm trying to become a Huntress cause I wanna help people." She ranted, speed of dialogue growing as she became more enthusiastic. The two adults were having trouble following her dialogue at this point, so by the time Ruby finished her rant with a wide smile, they were simply studying her. Ruby looked back and forth for some kind of response, worrying that she messed up the conversation somehow.

"Do you know who I am?" He asked. She jerked to attention.

"You're Professor Ozpin. You're the headmaster at Beacon." She said politely, hiding her admiration.

Ozpin smiled at her. "Hello."

"Nice to meet you."

"You want to come to my school?"

Ruby's jaw almost dropped, but she caught herself in time. "More than anything." She said as sincerely as she could.

Ozpin glanced over at the huntress, who merely gave a 'hmph' of disapproval and looked away. He looked back, grinning slightly.

"Well, okay."

Ruby could hardly believe her luck. She would be joining Yang tomorrow! Never mind that it was past midnight and they would both be sleep-deprived. She let a wide smile spread across her face.

Ozpin cleared his throat and took a sip of whatever was in his mug. He took out a piece of paper and a pen, and started scribbling on it. Ruby cocked her head and looked down at what he was writing.

"What are yo-"

"Now, seeing as how the airship due for Beacon leaves tomorrow morning, there isn't enough time to properly enroll you into the system." He explained quickly, finishing whatever he was writing with a final stroke. "This will act as your ticket tomorrow." He slid the paper over to her. She picked it up and saw that it was a message detailing her unique situation. She looked back up at him in gratitude.

"Professor Ozpin, I can't thank you eno-"

"Sergeant Rose! Sir." A voice said outside. Ruby's mouth instantly became dry.

"Is my daughter in this room?"

"Yes, sir."

The door swung open and her dad stomped in, looking sober and angry.

"Ruby, you explain to me right now what you're doing in the police station." He said with his teeth grit. Ruby giggled nervously. Her dad doesn't get angry often, but when he does, he was a terror. Ozpin cleared his throat, letting the angry police officer know that there were other people in the room with his daughter.

"Hello." He said politely, standing up.

"Er…who are you two?" He asked, looking over at the huntress. She walked over and offered her hand, which he took and shook.

"Glynda Goodwitch, professor at Beacon Academy." She said, curtly. Ozpin offered his hand as well.

"You may call me Ozpin. I am the headmaster of Beacon Academy." Her dad's eyes widened noticeably at that.

"Er…I'm Ruby's dad." His surprise gimping his ability to give him a good introduction.

"So I've heard." Ozpin said, smiling. He glanced back at Ruby briefly. "Your daughter has a lot to tell you. We'll leave you two to it." He walked out of the room, with Glynda giving a polite farewell nod before following him.

Ruby and her dad stared at each other in awkward silence for a few seconds, before her father cleared his throat and beckoned her to come with him.

"We're going home. You can explain it to me what happened on the way there."

Outside the door, Glynda glanced sideways at Ozpin as they walked down the hallway past multiple interrogation rooms.

"I don't understand your decision with this one. At least the last one showed he had judgement. She-"

"Has shown ability superior to many freshmen at Beacon."

"She displayed recklessness and a severe lack of judgement."

"Give her a chance. She might surprise you."

-o-

**A/N: This fic will mainly follow the leaders of the teams in this story, but viewpoints will **

**swap freely between all the characters as is needed. This fic will not conflict with the canon flow of Volume 1. Whether it will conflict with Volume 2 depends on if I can write enough before it comes out.**

**Since canon doesn't explain exactly what aura or semblances are, this fic will contain a lot of my take on the world of RWBY and its laws regarding dust etc. If you're confused at any point, feel free to ask.**

**My writing's gonna be choppy and…way faster paced than I would like until I get in the flow of things, just bear with me. I'm also not going to write any of Monty's action scenes. One: It won't do them any justice, and two: There's way too many subtle things going on to write fluidly. So yeah. **


	2. 2: Beginnings (Part 2)

**Beginnings (P2)**

_2 months ago_

_Aura is a fundamental part of any living creature, excluding the forces of Grimm, but only sentient beings weaponize it. Aura is still shrouded in mystery despite centuries of research, but here is what we know. The higher a person's aura level is, the higher their natural physical prowess is. With high enough aura levels, one has the abilities of an athlete naturally. With enough knowledge, one can manipulate aura to form a natural barrier around the skin, protecting the user from all but the most brutal attacks. More proficient users can use it for purely offensive purposes, which is extremely deadly to anything caught in the attack, but also drains the user substantially. One should be careful when using aura this way, as when it's depleted completely, the person will die. Fortunately, aura naturally replenishes over a period of time._

_ Those with extremely high aura levels can manifest semblances, which like every person's aura is unique. These semblances can range from anywhere from healing to manifesting aura in a physical form…_

Jaune sighed and shut the book, putting it in the pile of books he had read through. He scribbled a few lines in his notebook on what he just read, before putting burying his face in his arms. His brain needed some rest. _Nine books and none of them have what I want. _He thought miserably. _I'm gonna have to call it a day after the next one._

Jaune was looking for any information on how aura passes down throughout bloodlines. His whole family were hunters, or had enough aura to be hunters. So why didn't he have any of it?

He made his way back to the bookshelves, looking for a promising book. He's already exhausted the aura section in the library, but he checked it again. Can't hurt, can it?

It was a blank cover with a simple text reading: A Comprehensive Summary of Hunters. It was a long shot because there was very little about hunters that the general public didn't know about. People like to know about their heroes, after all, and he seriously doubted that it would shed any light on his topic. Still, he opened up the book and scanned the table of contents, just to be thorough, and flipped over to the first chapter, after the introduction.

_Hunters are any sentient beings with aura levels high enough to manifest semblances. A person's aura potential is typically detected from age eight to eleven, with few exceptions. Those that have a high enough potential are then offered entry into various hunter academies. _

Jaune was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and saw the librarian looking down at him with a slightly apologetic look.

"We're closing soon," she said, pointing out the sign with closing times above his head. Jaune's eyes widened and he checked his watch.

"Ah…my bad. I wasn't looking at the time."

"That's alright. Would you like to check out these books?"

"Er…no, that's alright. I'm done here." Jaune muttered. He looked at the messy pile of books and, feeling a little embarrassed, started ordering them in alphabetical order. The librarian smiled a bit and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it."

"Sorry," Jaune apologized, "I'll get out of your way now." He grabbed his notes and walked towards the exit, waving to the librarian behind the checkout desk.

He grabbed the door handle and shivered at how cold it was. He wasn't used to staying out so late. _My dad's not gonna be happy..._ He put his hood up and shoved his hands into his jacket as he walked the three blocks to his house

-o-

Jaune opened the door to his house, still shivering. He slipped out of his shoes, and hung his jacket on the coat hanger. He rubbed his arms in an effort to warm them up when a voice sounded behind him.

"Hello, Jaune." Jaune turned around and saw his dad sitting on the living room couch, feet propped up on a spare chair. He was reading a magazine under a solitary light, not even looking up at him.

"Uh…sorry, I wasn't looking at the-"

"Shhh, quiet. Your mom's sleeping." He folded the corner of his page and closed the magazine, finally looking at Jaune. Jaune's eyes widened in surprise as he quickly checked his watch against the clock in the living room.

"Mom's sleeping? Already? It's only 9…"

"She wasn't feeling too well, so I told her to take it easy."

"Oh." An awkward silence filled the air. The two never got along too well. The last time they had a decent, civilized conversation was when he was seven. After Jaune had gone through the 'aura potential' age without any signs of following in his family's footsteps, he had talked to his son less and less. Jaune wasn't an idiot. He knew exactly why.

"So, what were you doing all day, Jaune?"

"I was reading up on aura in the library."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but why?"

"I was trying to find out how aura passes down through generations. Figure out what's going on with…" He spread his arms and shrugged.

"Oh, you should have told me before you left." His dad tossed aside the magazine and stood up, "I could have saved you a trip."

"..hm?" Jaune wasn't quite sure why he surprised. His dad was a former hunter, he should know all about it.

"After all," He continued, "I have done plenty of research on the subject."

Of course he has. "From where? None of the books at the library-"

"The library only has the most basic information. That's all the general public needs," He walked up the stairs, beckoning at Jaune to follow. "The hunter academies had more in-depth explanations."

Jaune sighed. "Of course." He muttered under his breath, not noticing the sideways glance his dad gave him. They stopped outside his dad's personal study.

"Wait out here." His dad said firmly to Jaune, giving him a stern look as he opened the door and slipped inside. Jaune stood outside whistling, but checked himself as he remembered his mom was asleep at the moment. He merely contented himself with looking at the family pictures in the hallway. He tracked the progression in time, noticing how close he and his dad had been before he grew up.

_This is the most we've spoken in year, _He realized, just before a loud sneeze from his dad interrupted his thoughts.

"Wow, this place is dusty." He heard his dad remark, followed by another sneeze. Jaune raised his eyebrow.

"You alright in there?"

"I'm fine." He said, before walking out of the room with a thick book in his hands. It looked like it hasn't been

"Here's the book," He said, wiping some dust off the cover, "Some of the pages are missing, but this should have everything you wanted on the subject."

Jaune looked down at the book, noting the Beacon academy logo on it. "You took this from Beacon?"

"Headmaster let me. They had plenty of extra copies, and they didn't mind giving one away." He clarified, watching Jaune examine the book, "You can have it."

Jaune's eyes widened. "Really?" _This book is from a hunter academy…is someone like me supposed to read it?_

"Yeah, I already took notes on everything I need." Jaune's dad shrugged, misinterpreting his hesitance.

"…Thanks, dad." Jaune muttered, just loud enough for him to hear. He opened up the book, saw the massive table of contents, and immediately shut it. "Er…I think I'm done with books for today."

"You? Bored of books?"

"I read around seven today, back off." The two chuckled a bit, before an awkward silence fell around them.

Jaune cleared his throat to break the silence. "Thanks again. I think I'll turn in for the night. I'll start reading tomorrow."

He gave his dad a small smile, which was returned, albeit strained. He turned around and walked into his room, giving his dad a sidelong glance along the way. He looked around his cluttered room, looking for some place to put his book. He sighed and swept some clothes off his desk, then dumped the book in the clear spot. He gave his room one more look over. _I should probably clean this place up, _He thought as he salvaged his pajamas from the pile of clothes on the floor. _…Tomorrow. _He decided as he walked towards his bathroom for a quick shower.

His dad's eyes followed his son's retreating back until he was out of sight before he let his smile slide off his face. He looked at the pictures on the side of the wall, sighing quietly before walking back into his study.

-o-

The first thing Jaune noticed when he regained consciousness was the orange that filled his vision. He tried to ignore it and go back to sleep, but he knew his own sleep patterns. Once he wakes up in the morning, it's near impossible to go back to sleep. Jaune opened his eyes and immediately shut them again. A ray of light was poking out from behind his curtains and hitting him directly in his eyes. _Definitely not getting any more sleep. _He grumbled as he reluctantly crawled out from under his blanket. Resigned to starting the day, he walked over and opened the curtains, letting light flood his room.

_What to do today..?_ He wondered briefly, before remembering about the book his dad lent him last night. He shook his head and yawned. Yesterday was enough reading for the next week.

He walked out of his room, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He looked at the door to his parent's room. _Closed…They must still be sleeping_. He glanced at the clock on the wall and did a double take. It was only 8 o'clock. If he were anyone else he would walk right back to his bed and go back to sleep.

Instead, he walked downstairs to fix himself breakfast, cursing his inability to fall asleep. They were out of eggs, so he just poured some milk and cereal into a bowl. He chewed quickly. He wasn't too eager to stay in an empty house by himself, but there weren't too many places he could go to kill time either.

Vale doesn't have much in the way of entertainment. There was an amusement park, and a couple of arcades and movie theaters scattered around the city, but none of those were open this early, nor were they close enough for him to conveniently go to. The only places that were open at this time were convenience stores, the library, and the museum.

The Vale Museum was the city's pride and joy. It housed relics from past heroes, works of art, and dedications to the sacrifices of the current hunters, as well as the occasional artifact from the ruin of civilizations who were overrun by the Grimm. It was the first stop for any tourists who came to the city, so many shops and tourist traps were concentrated around that area.

It wasn't his first choice, but it was either that or stay at home not doing anything. Besides, he hasn't been there in a while, and the museum artifacts were intruiging. He took out his personal tablet and looked up the latest ticket prices. He grimaced at the results. Still affordable…barely. He'd have to ask for some Lien later. If he hurries, he'd be able to get his ticket before the rest of the city wakes up.

He gulped the rest of the cereal down, and dropped the empty bowl in the sink. He jogged upstairs to get changed – quietly so his parents wouldn't wake up and demand to go with him. After he grabbed the first set of clothes in his sight and slipping them on, he grabbed a pen and paper to write a quick note: _Going to the museum, be back soon. Might pick up eggs along the way._

He grabbed his wallet and walked outside to tape the note to his door, opening it so it faced his parent's room. Wouldn't want them to worry, after all.

-o-

Jaune got into the museum at 10. Apparently, everybody thought going early would nab them a ticket, so there was a massive line waiting for him by the time he got there. Ironically, when he finally got his ticket, there was barely anyone behind him. He'd have to remember that next time he wanted to get into a popular tourist spot.

When he was finally inside, he was given the option to pay extra for a tour guide. Nobody paid for that except for tourist groups. He declined, and just quietly followed the nearest group for commentary on the exhibits, deviating only when he was bored.

Following the tour group had its toll, though. The museum was massive. Way too large, some people would say. The ceilings were 30 feet high, even without a second floor, and the main hallway had massive spaces of several hundred feet without any rooms or exhibits. Just walking around was an exercise.

In some books Jaune read, however, it also noted the defensibility of the museum. There was only one entrance, and no windows at all. The main entrance hall had a massive glass ceiling, but there were mechanisms in place to instantly cover it with metal. The massive size of the whole building let it house a few thousand citizens at once, if the occasion called for it.

That was all fine and well, but it was hell for any visitors to get around. Plus, he found that the place hadn't really changed much since his last visit, which was somewhat disappointing. The only artifacts that had been added since last time were a couple of ruined machines that only had vague descriptions on their functions. So instead, he revisited some of the older exhibits, with their storytelling carvings and battered weapons that hinted at great battles.

Still as interesting as ever, but his mind could only retread familiar ground for so long before he got bored. Still, he followed the tour group, hoping that the guide would be able to provide some new information on the exhibits.

She stopped the group in front of an exhibit that showed a strange transparent box with an intricate maze and a ball inside. Jaune hung back a few paces, just in range to hear what she was saying.

"This artifact was recovered from City of Haven, the most recent casualty against the Grimm. Their citizens were extremely secretive, but what little we know about them suggests that they were extremely proficient warriors. This artifact was perhaps one of their entertainment devices, though it could also have been a test of logic…"

It was nothing he hadn't heard about before. Hell, what she just said was practically written on the label. He lost interest and wandered away from the tour group while she was still introducing the exhibit, deciding to wander around the museum to see if there was anything interesting around.

He eventually ended up near the dust exhibit, which was really just a collection of expired crystals and dust that didn't fulfill any sort of combat role. It really only attracted people who have never seen either of them used in any capacity. So Jaune was surprised when not only was the room had more than five people inside it, but a majority of them were Faunus as well.

He didn't have a problem with Faunus, but most of humanity did. So it was extremely rare to see them walking around in public, much less in a popular human tourist spot. Some of the people walking past him were actually glaring at them before picking up the pace, but the Faunus inside seemed oblivious and continued to observe the dust.

Jaune just glanced at the group, chatting away happily while surrounded by people who hated them, and walked away himself. He didn't dislike the Faunus, but there was just something eerie about that group. The way they talked with each other seemed off and unnatural.

He made his way to the nearest exhibit, which was another two hundred feet walk. He glanced up at the sign above the entrance. The Hall of Heroes. The biggest exhibit in the museum, detailing every hunter who had changed the tide of war or boosted everyone's morale.

Ah, what the hell. It's been a while since he paid his respects anyways.

He walked into the room, navigating past the crowds of people all here to admire humanity's best. He walked past the memorial of photos, the collection of weapons, and the screen showing a couple of movies to the statue in the corner. It was a pretty plain statue of a man standing straight up, arms crossed.

The plaque explained that the man had been cornered on top of the mountains of Mistral by hundreds of Grimm. His team had already succumbed to the sheer numbers of the enemy. His final act was to expend all his remaining aura to bring the mountain down. His body and weapons were recovered afterwards and given to his family members.

Jaune stamped a fist over his chest in respect, and hunched his back in a mini bow. _Rest in peace, great-great-grandpa._

There were barely any people stopping around his statue. The other exhibits were all more alluring, with their weapons and armors on display, and massive plaques detailing their history and fighting style. Compared with a musty statue in the corner, they were a lot more relatable and just more attractive in general.

Jaune was still in the middle of wishing his ancestor well when something suddenly crashed into him from behind and knocked him onto the ground. He glanced behind him to see a boy being yanked away by the arm so quickly that he could barely keep up. The boy glanced behind and saw Jaune on the ground, and yanked his arm away from his companion.

"Crap, sorry." He said loudly above the room chatter. He looked like he was about to walk over to check if Jaune was alright before his hand was grabbed again.

"Come _on_, we're gonna be late if you don't-"

"Alright_, _woman, calm down." He shot back at her, giving Jaune a sort of apologetic look before being yanked away again. Jaune couldn't help but stare after them as they rushed off again.

"I can walk by myself, you know." He heard the boy say as they rushed out of the room. The girl said something back to him which Jaune couldn't quite make out.

_That was…interesting. _Jaune thought as he planted a hand behind him to push himself back on his feet. He paused as the tip of his finger grazed something. He turned around and saw a folder lying on the ground, its contents strewn out around it.

_It must have fallen out of that guy's bag when he bumped into me. _Jaune realized. He looked around; everyone was still looking at the exhibits, oblivious to what happened. Jaune sighed and started gathering the papers and putting them back in the folder. The guy didn't seem like a bad person, after all. The least he could do is bring this to the lost and found so he can pick whatever this was up later.

Jaune's eyes habitually scanned a few words on each page, despite himself. He was naturally curious when it came to this sort of thing. It seemed to be just be a ton of letters, all addressed to different people. He must have been planning to drop by the post office that day.

Jaune grabbed the last pages and skimmed the contents…then paused, eyes widening. It was an application to Beacon Academy, complete with a transcript. His throat suddenly became quite dry. He wasn't sure why he didn't stuff this into the folder along with everything else instantly.

He read through the transcript. This person didn't attend Signal or any other school. His credentials all came from private tutors, and had also passed with flying marks on all the necessary tests. His weapon was a sword, though there was nothing anywhere about his semblance. There wasn't even a name on the transcript. Personal information was handled in the application itself.

Jaune could easily take this transcript and make an application for himself.

_My god, this process needs to have another look taken at it._ He thought, mouth suddenly dry. He knew what his mind was considering was just plain wrong. So many things could go wrong. The teachers at Beacon could notice he doesn't have any prowess whatsoever. He could be ripped apart by Grimm during a mission. His team might reject him because he's so damn useless. Anyone would tell him to just put the damn paper back into the folder and just leave it.

But then he remembered his years of silence with his dad, and the statue he was squatting in front of right now.

_20 minutes later…_

"Welcome to the information desk, how may I help?"

"Hi, uh…I saw a person drop this. I just wanted to drop it at the Lost and Found." He slid the folder over the desk. She took it and put it in a drawer.

"Thank you very much. Do you remember what the owner looked like?"

"Er…black hair, blue eyes? The place was crowded, I didn't get a good look."

"That's understandable. We'll hold onto this in case he comes back."

"Alright. Thanks."

"Thank you."

And Jaune walked straight out of the museum with the transcript hidden under his jacket.

-o-

**A/N: ****Yeah, Jaune knows about aura. Don't worry, this won't conflict with canon, because it'll be a plot point later. On another note, this chapter is rushed, because I pieced it together over a couple of weeks and couldn't be assed to improve it at the moment.**

**I know what scrolls are. Tablets =/= scrolls in this story. The general public don't get scrolls, only those at Beacon do, so I figured that they needed their own equivalent.**

**My update schedule will be sporadic, but I'll be aiming at one or two chapters a week. This one came late because of a ton of tests, but it should be smooth sailing from now throughout summer.**

**Also guys, if you're favorite or followed, can you drop a review? Constructive criticism helps a lot. Thanks to frontmandude and lego for reviewing, it helped me find some flaws in my writing style. It'll take time to switch it up but I'm working on it.**


	3. 3: Beginnings (Part 3)

**Apologies for the reupload**

**Beginnings (P3)**

He drummed his finger on the desk as he waited patiently for the lady to finish up checking whether he was actually here in the museum yesterday. Security reasons, she said. The desk was located in the very corner of the museum, far away from any main attractions, so she probably wasn't too used to actually doing her job.

"Ah, yes. Someone did drop a folder in the lost and found yesterday."

"Well, great." He said. That's a load off his mind. He wasn't sure if the blonde guy would actually help him out after he knocked him onto the ground.

She looked him up and down, as if trying to verify his identity by sight. After a few seconds, she apparently decided he was the right person and gave him the folder.

He took it and smiled politely, then turned around towards his companion.

"Got it." He said, holding up the folder. She sighed in relief.

"That's wonderful, can we go now?" She said impatiently. She was about to turn around and leave when he held a finger up. She looked to see he had opened the folder and was examining the pages.

"Not yet. I need to check it." She groaned loudly.

"Don't give me that, Beryl," He said, glancing up at her in irritation, "If you didn't nearly yank my arm off halfway across Vale, none of this would have happened."

"I'm sorry, alright? How long are you going to remind me of that?" She snapped back. "We were late, anyways." She muttered under her breath.

He furrowed his brow, but otherwise ignored her remark. He simply continued his examination of the contents of his folder while Beryl paced around impatiently.

When he finally reached the end, he paused. His eyes narrowed. He went back to the beginning and flipped through it again quickly, skimming the pages. Then he shut his folder in an exaggerated manner with an angry look on his face. Beryl looked over in concern.

"...what's wrong?" She asked. He scratched his hair, a habit that only showed when he was angry, nonplussed, or both. Just him doing that warrants concern.

"My transcript isn't in here," He said through clenched teeth. "My _damn _transcripts aren't here." He repeated, as if his mind was still processing.

Beryl could feel her mouth dry, and her gut twist. She knew this was partially her fault, and she couldn't help but feel guilty about it.

"Well, it probably just fell out of the folder and whoever returned it missed it." She offered meekly. He let that roll around in his mind for a while and nodded slowly.

"Sure, yeah. At the very least, we need to talk to that blonde kid who was near it," He muttered. "He definitely would have seen if anything had happened to the page."

"Alright, we have a plan. Let's go back to the desk and see if she knows anything about..." She trailed off as the sound of distant helicopter rotors came into earshot.

They both shared a look of puzzlement, with an instinctive feeling that something was off also forming in their guts. Helicopters in broad daylight? Helicopters were already a rare sight in Vale, only the police and a few crime rings had access to them. And since the police were not known to run drills this early...

He looked around and frowned. Everyone in the entrance hall had noticed by now, and were either whispering to each other about it or ignoring the sound altogether. Not his problem. He shoved the folder into a pocket inside his hoodie.

"Come on," He said under his breath to Beryl, "Let's get out of here."

The two had barely made it two paces when the glass ceiling suddenly shattered. He looked up to see shards of glass falling towards him...with black silhouettes blocking out the sun above them. He instinctively ducked and covered his head with his arms, along with everybody else in the room. Thankfully, very few shards actually landed near him, but he could see people around the room that were less fortunate. One adult was screaming in pain, back and arms scratched badly.

The figures landed, and he could see that they were wearing the masks of the White Fang. The doors in the hall suddenly burst open, and he could see other members of the White Fang emerging from bathrooms, deserted side hallways, and various doors labeled "Staff Only".

"Everyone, get down on the ground now!" One of them yelled out. The crowd had finally understood what was happening, and a few of them tried to make a run for it. They were quickly intercepted by faunus and tackled to the ground.

The one who had given the initial order was now walking around calmly, with his gun pointed at the ground. He must be the leader - his mask had two red lines on either cheek.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're not here to hurt you." The leader said in a calming tone, "Don't be a hero, and no one gets hurt."

_Well, that's not going happening__.__ You just dragged me into this._ They were still in the relatively secluded corner of the entrance hall, but he remembered there was a bathroom near the information desk. His head turned on a swivel to check said bathroom. There was only one faunus coming out of it. Strange, considering that since that was the most secluded area of the hall, they would all come out from there. But instead, they seemed to think that they would only need one person to secure this little corner of the hall. Big mistake. He would at least have pairs covering each other.

He muttered a quick "follow me" to Beryl and dashed straight for the faunus. He was hoping that the other faunus would be too busy covering their own sectors and forcing people on their knees to notice him.

His targeted faunus was busy pointing his rifle at the lady at the information desk and yelling at her to get down, so he never noticed him coming in. He channeled his aura into his right hand and slammed it into the small of the faunus' back, letting it discharge out through his hand. The faunus instantly lost consciousness, his body shutting down temporarily as it tried to deal with the sudden overload of aura.

He couldn't do that many more times. The amount of aura he uses each time makes it impractical, but in this case, he wanted the faunus to be out as quickly and quietly as possible. He couldn't risk him shooting the gun in a panic and alert every other faunus in the room.

He barely broke his stride as he grabbed the unconscious body and the gun, and hauled both of them back to the bathroom where they emerged. He could hear Beryl behind him telling the information lady and the other civilians to stay down and act scared. The whole process took less than 10 seconds.

He and Beryl barely made it into the bathroom before metal slid over what was left of the glass ceiling and plunged the whole hall into darkness. A few seconds passed before amber lights flickered on, barely providing any light. This was apparently the reaction time of the security team. Just...awful.

It was pretty genius, actually. The faunus were using their natural ability to see in the dark to their advantage. A side effect of that was hopefully making it tougher for them to notice one of their own weren't covering his sector.

They were both breathing heavily, not from being tired from the brief sprint but from the adrenaline that was surging through their bodies from the situation.

"You three, get to the security room!" They heard somebody order outside, somehow audible over the helicopter rotors outside. "And you, stay down on the ground. Remember what I said about heroes?"

"What the hell is going on?" Beryl hissed. He shrugged and dropped the body onto the tiled bathroom floor unceremoniously, then examined it properly for the first time since the attack had begun. The faunus was dressed in normal clothing, save for the bare white mask.

"You notice their masks when they dropped in? White Fang." He paused and looked at the rifle, wondering where that came from. You can't exactly walk into this place with a gun. His eyes drifted towards the bathroom stalls. All of them were unoccupied, but one of the doors were closed. He walked over to it and tried the handle. Locked. He channeled aura into his arm and bashed the door open. Channeling didn't take nearly as much out of him as discharging did, simply because his aura stayed inside his body.

What met him was a surreal, almost funny sight. An empty bag was sitting on top of a pair of pants, with both of the legs draping over a pair of shoes, no doubt to make people think the stall was occupied.

He couldn't help it, and laughed despite himself. He could almost feel Beryl giving him a strange look, so he quickly composed himself and slipped back into a serious mindset, but only after briefly wondering about the applications this could be used for.

They had a person on the inside who somehow managed to sneak in weapons and place them in certain places. He'd worry about that later. He shook his arm a bit, letting his aura go back to its natural flow.

A loud bang was heard next to him, and he turned to see Beryl dragging the body into a nearby toilet stall and planting it there.

"So," She said, closing the door, "The White Fang are hitting the museum. Why?"

"How would I know?" He said, trying to think. The White Fang were inside now, but they were cut off from their helicopters. And how else would they escape? The police would be here in a couple of minutes, but their choppers needed stupid amounts of paperwork and clearance. So the helicopters were the faunus' only way out. Only logical thing to do would be...

"...they're going to the security room to retract the metal barrier so they can leave with whatever they came for." He said out loud after a few moments of thinking. He and Beryl locked eyes, and reached some sort of silent agreement.

-o-

His foot hit a particularly slippery section, and he would have slipped off the edge if Beryl didn't grab him under his armpit and hoist him back up.

"Careful." She whispered. He swallowed and nodded. Thank god the faunus below them were too busy chatting to hear that screw up. Why was there even a slippery patch this high up?

"Thanks." He whispered back. She only nodded and kept an eye on the ground.

The duo were currently shimmying along a ledge, way high up near the roof of the whole museum. He had spotted a dip up where the wall and the curve of the ceiling met on their last visit, when he was bored and his eyes were wandering, but didn't have a chance to see if it really was a ledge.

So they checked it out right after the two left the bathroom by jumping up 25 feet and taking a look. There was. And it ran throughout the whole museum.

So they followed a small group of four faunus who had left the entrance hall, hoping they would lead them to either the security room, or what they were there for. The faunus needed both of those objectives, and stopping just one of them would ruin everything for them.

So they kept moving along the ledge, a little faster than he would have preferred, but they wouldn't have been able to keep up with the group on the ground otherwise.

After ten minutes and a couple of careful corner turns, the group below had finally stopped moving. He felt around behind him and found a tiny nook in the pattern on the ceiling where he could put his finger in. He did so, and slowly leaned forward over the edge to get a better view of what they were standing above. Beryl grabbed his opposite shoulder to steady him.

Nice thought, but that meant if he fell, she'd be going along with him. He shrugged the hand off, shaking his head silently, hoping she got the message. Then he turned his gaze back towards the ground, noticing that the wall beneath them had a metal door.

This looked like the place. He eased himself back onto the ledge, and removed his sore finger from the nook. "There's a metal door down there, it probably leads to the security room." He whispered to her. She nodded and bent her knees, ready to jump down, when he stopped her.

"I want to get into that room too. Wait for them to open it and then we'll-"

"Okay, it's set up," A voice sounded out beneath them. "Get out of the way."

A second later, an explosion sounded and shook the wall they were both standing on, causing them to both slip off the edge and start falling 30 feet straight towards the group.

He got over his initial shock quickly enough. He kicked at the wall to get leverage and flipped himself back upright. In the remaining second he had, he looked at the faunus around his landing zone, marking their position in his mind.

When he and Beryl both landed in their midst, they barely gave them any chance to respond save a quick yelp of surprise. He quickly grabbed the wrist of the nearest faunus and twisted it so hard that he dropped his sword. He channeled aura into his arm and sent the faunus flying into another faunus near Beryl.

He trusted her to handle them, so he quickly dropped to the ground and grabbed the discarded sword and barely brought it up in time to parry a sloppy chop from his right side. He quickly drew his sword back and slapped the opponent's blade to the side, then incapacitated the faunus with a swift hilt to the chin.

If his memory was correct, the last faunus was behind him holding a rifle...and he didn't have a faunus near him to dissuade the gunman from firing. He dived to the side, avoiding a burst of gunfire. He scrambled on his feet and turned towards the last one, when a sword suddenly flew in and swiped at the faunus' knees, sending him to the ground. _Ugh. Beryl and her telekinesis_, he thought, stomping over and knocking the faunus out with a quick punch to the head.

He looked over towards Beryl. She had a sword in one hand, with the other one now floating next to her. Both of the faunus were lying on the ground, one with a black eye and the other bleeding slightly from the head.

"Showoff," He said to Beryl. She shrugged, and the sword started floating lazy circles around her. "Come on, let's get these guys out of sight."

He jerked his head towards the now open security room, with two wide eyed security guards inside with their weapons held loosely towards the door. _Those two must have seen everything. _He thought, silently laughing at their expressions.

They both grabbed an unconscious body and dragged them inside the security room, careful to avoid the hot edges of the doorway. They grunted and dropped the bodies next right next to the doorway, slumped against the wall. He turned around towards the two wide eyed security guards inside.

"Give us a second, we'll be right with you," He told them. "And er...put those down." They nodded dumbly and lowered their guns, watching as the duo turned back around and dragged the other two bodies inside.

"Alright, have you two seen anything outside the main hall?" He asked the two guards. They gave him a confused look in return, and he gestured impatiently to the massive screen with dozens of camera feeds on it.

"Um..no. Sir." One of them replied. He scoffed and rolled his eyes at that. They looked twice his age.

"Drop the sir. So no faunus left the main hall on your cameras."

"No. We didn't even know they were outside our door until we heard someone talking outside."

So someone was messing with the cameras. No way to get information from this room.

Well, back to the old school way then.

"You two keep your eyes on that." It was pointless, but it was either that or have them stare at him constantly while he was in the room.

He walked up next to Beryl, who was standing guard over the four faunus just in case one of them wakes up and tries to do something.

"So," He talked to her under his breath, "Which one looks the least beat up?"

"I'd say the one with the busted knees will wake up fast. Can't imagine your little love tap keeping him out for long."

"What? That's bull-"

The faunus with the sliced knees started moaning and shaking his head. He looked at Beryl, scowling at her smug grin, and kneeled in front of the faunus who was slowly regaining his consciousness. He reached out and pulled the mask off, looking straight into his eyes.

"Hey there." He said, tone mockingly friendly. The faunus said nothing in return. "Mind telling me what the White Fang are doing here?"

The faunus glared at him. "I'm not telling you anything."

"That's not your choice" He said, leaning in close, "The only choice you have is how much it hurts before you tell me what I want to know."

"He's serious, you know." Beryl said over his shoulder. She probably knows what he was about to do. She was his first test subject when he wanted to try out the technique, and she told him to never do it to her ever again.

The faunus didn't even respond this time, his eyes just shifted back and forth between the two.

"Last chance." He said, already knowing what the answer would be. He started gathering a small amount of aura in the tip of his finger.

When the faunus responded by taking a swing at him, he just simply blocked it with his forearm and tapped his shoulder, discharging the extra aura in his finger. It was just enough to overload the aura his systems, but not enough to make him unconscious.

The result was instantaneous. The faunus' back arched, and a scream sounded out from him before his mouth was quickly covered. Beryl winced, knowing exactly what he was going through. When she had offered to test it out, it felt like everything inside her had turned to molten lava. Who knows what he's done with the technique since then.

After a few seconds, the faunus slumped. When the hand over his mouth was removed, he was panting and gasping.

"Alright, now tell me what I want to know before I melt your brain." He said. It was a bluff, but his victim didn't need to know that.

The faunus caught his breath after a few seconds, but still didn't answer. After 10 seconds of silence had passed, he rolled his eyes and sighed in mock frustration, holding out a finger again.

"Alright! I'll tell you, just keep that thing away from me!" It was almost comical how much panic he pointed at that finger with. He curled the finger back into his fist.

"Start talking."

"We're here to steal the dust and crystals inside the exhibit."

He waited for more, but the faunus only kept trying to shrink into the wall away from him.

"That's it? You're here to steal a bunch of empty crystals and useless dust? Why?" His eyes narrowed, "If you're lying to me..."

"No! No I'm not! They didn't tell us much!"

"Yeah, I can see why." He muttered, before punching the faunus for the 2nd time that day - harder this time. He was instantly knocked out cold.

He sighed and tapped his fingers on the ground thoughtfully for a few seconds before standing up.

"He was probably bullshitting me." He told Beryl. She gave a quick huff of disbelief, and shook her head.

"Uh, no. You don't know what that thing you did feels like. I doubt he wanted to risk going through that twice."

"Well, maybe he was tougher than you, who knows." He said. She started to open her mouth to retort when he raised a finger to shut her up. "Regardless, it can't hurt for us to check out if he was telling the truth."

"...How? By now, they probably have the dust and crystals loaded up in the main entrance hall. The only way we'd get a good look is if we walked straight in there past the dozen faunus terrorists."

"Hmm..." He rubbed his chin, trying to think of a plan. His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden rush of static coming from one of the bodies.

"Are you guys there? How long until the barrier's lifted?" A voice sounded out. He walked towards the body, and searched it. He held up a radio transmitter, showing it to Beryl. She glanced at him and gestured towards it rapidly, mouthing some words at him.

He quickly got the idea. He pressed down the transmit button and replied. "We're inside the security room now, just trying to figure out how to lift the barrier. Give us a minute."

"You have ten." The voice through the radio said, then the static stopped as the line cut off. Beryl stared at him in bewilderment.

"What the hell was that?" She asked, arms held up to shower her bewilderment. "Now they'll know something's wrong in ten minutes."

"They're just waiting for the barrier to lift right now, right? I have an idea." He whistled at the two security guards, who rocketed out of their chair to stand at attention. "I'm gonna need you two to do something for me."

-o-

The faunus leader was standing around in the main entrance hall, restless. Exactly nine minutes had passed since his transmission to the team he sent for the security room, and the barrier still wasn't up. The retrieval team was already back in the hall with their boxes of dust and crystals, so what was taking them so long?

He looked down, and noticed that two human hostages a ways away were whispering to each other.

"Hey!" He yelled at them. They two jerked in surprise, hand still tied behind their back, and they looked at him in terror. He shoved the rifle barrel into one of their faces."What do you two think you're talking about? Be quiet!" He kicked one of the hostages and the force rolled him away from his friend.

They didn't plan for something like this. Cops already had the place surrounded, and that barrier was still up. His hand was shaking from nervousness, but he did his best to keep his calm composure anyways. He needed to set a good example for his men.

No one noticed the two figures up near the roof on opposite sides of the room, and even if they had looked up, they would have to work to find them. They were spaced just far away enough from the emergency lights that their shadows weren't covering it, but anyone looking up would still be blinded enough by the light to not notice either of them.

Thank god the faunus had moved the hostages to the sides of the room. Doubtless, they thought they would be easier to control that way, but it also put them out of harm's way. Of course, he still would have followed through with the plan, but at least now he wouldn't have to have a couple of innocent deaths added to his conscience.

He checked his watch. 9 minutes and 30 seconds. They had gotten into position just under the time limit. He took out his phone and turned it on, cupping the resulting light in his hands. He hit a preset speed dial. After about half a second, the person on the other side picked up.

"Hit it." He whispered into the phone, then hung up. The metal barrier immediately retracted, and sunlight flooded into the room. He pressed himself against the wall as the emergency light switched off, hoping no one will see him. The helicopters were still hovering above museum, and they dropped down a rope with a platform hung under them.

"Alright! About time. Load them up!" He heard the leader call out from under him. He licked his lips and turned on his phone's camera, and waited. He could spot Beryl on the other side of the room doing the exact same thing he was.

After half a minute of waiting, the helicopters started pulling the platforms back up. He waited until he could see the contents of the platforms rose to his level, then started snapping pictures of the boxes filled with crystals and glass jars filled with dust.

This was as close as we was going to get to seeing what was inside. He quickly speed dialed again and didn't even wait for the other side to pick up.

"Close it. _Close it._" He whispered, putting as much urgency into his voice as he could. Thankfully, the guards back in the security room were quick to the draw, and closed it just in time.

The ropes were caught by the two edges of the barrier as it closed, forcing the ropes closer towards each other. The boxes swung across the room and crashed into each other, raining broken glass and dust onto the floor below, before the metal barrier closed in the center and snapped the rope, causing its contents to fall straight to the ground.

He leaned back and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding as the emergency lights turned back on. Well, that settled it. They really were airlifting useless stuff. He briefly wondered what would have happened to the hostages if he was wrong and they were volatile, then scratched that thought. They weren't, that's all that mattered. Only a couple of hostages were injured by stray glass. Still didn't stop the hostages from screaming their lungs out, though.

He opened up his phone and flashed the lit screen twice in the direction of Beryl. She returned a single flash, and they both donned the mask they took from the faunus. He didn't want to risk them finding out who they both were...and he was most at home behind a mask anyway. He and Beryl took a step off the ledge and dropped down.

The faunus were understandably less than pleased about the situation. The leader had taken out his radio and was yelling into it.

"What happened? The barrier's back!" He was yelling into it. Only static answered him.

None of the faunus noticed the two figures who had dropped silently to the floor until one of them was standing right behind the leader and holding a sword to his throat. He dropped his radio in surprise,

"What the-"

"Call your men off and surrender to the police outside." The person demanded, pushing the sword closer to his throat until he drew a tiny bit of blood.

After he got over his initial shock, the leader started chuckling. "Really? We have the hostages, what kind of leverage do you think you have?"

"Other than the fact that I could kill you right now? I thought you could see in the dark. Look around."

At that, the faunus' smile faded as he looked around. He caught a few flashes of light as a sword - was it a sword? It was moving far too fast. Then he looked around and saw that more than half his faunus were lying on the ground already, either unconscious or dead, he couldn't tell.

"Yeah, you think you have hostages? So do we now. Call your choppers off and I'll let you drag your men outside to get cuffed." The person growled. The leader couldn't help but note how young he sounded, despite his attempts to hide it. So he pressed a thumb to the panic button hidden in his palm, knowing that the kid would probably not expect it.

"...so do you know how many men those helicopters can hold?" He asked.

That made the kid pause. Just long enough for the door to the rooftop to open up and a squad of more White Fang poured into the hall. The helicopter rotor's distinct sound faded after this, leaving for god knows what reason.

The boy cursed and slammed the hilt of his sword into the faunus' head, knocking him out. "Beryl! Door behind you!" He yelled out, ducking and sprinting towards the ones she missed in the initial clear. He watched her spin around and sent one sword flying towards the new group, while also blocking an attack with her other one.

That was all he could see before he reached his targets. They were still focused mostly on Beryl, and didn't even see him dropping their boss and moving towards them.

He needed to take these guys out quickly. They were already surrounded, and the longer the fight kept going the worse it'll be. So he spared no expense in taking care of these guys.

He started off by slashing at the wrist of the first faunus he came across, causing him to yell out in pain and alert the others. They started turning their weapons towards him. He grabbed the faunus who was holding his wrist and propelled him into a rifle bearing enemy, then followed up by sending them both flying with a channeled kick.

He didn't waste time. He turned to his right and slashed the faunus there twice, once in the chest and once in the leg. Not enough to be fatal, but it should definitely impair his movements, make him slow enough to not be a threat.

He sidestepped a clumsy overhead slash next. The faunus had used too much force behind it, and the sword got stuck in the ground. He simply stepped on the sword and forced it out of the attacker's hand, then knocked him out with a quick punch to the face.

The last two faunus had finally regrouped and were charging at him together. He gave his sword a sharp flick and let go. It embedded itself into the shoulder of one of the would-be attackers, the force also knocking him down. The other faunus apparently hadn't noticed his ally going down, or didn't care.

He stepped under the swipe and grabbed the arm, twisting it as he ended up behind the faunus. He planted a foot in the back of his leg, forcing the faunus to kneel on the ground, then took him out with an elbow to the back of the head.

Then he turned back around, fists up - to nothing. Strange. He had counted one more faunus when he was dashing towards them. He turned a 360 and couldn't find anyone, so he shrugged and banished it from his mind. He walked over to the faunus with a sword in him, stomped on his face, and pulled his sword out.

He glanced over to where Beryl was. She was stuck behind a pillar, as the group from the rooftop all had assault rifles and were unloading on her position. She couldn't manipulate her sword where she can't see, and she really didn't want to risk poking her head out.

Back on the other side of the hall, he couldn't help but notice how grouped they were, and decided that it wasn't even worth rushing over. He would be taken down before he got there anyways. He channeled aura to his hand, then forced it out of his hand into his sword, keeping the aura tightly contained. If he didn't, the sword could just easily blow up from the energy inside it.

God, it was so much easier to do this with the sword he made himself. Regardless, the sword glowed blue after a few seconds. He could feel it almost humming with energy below his fingers. He stopped once he felt it was enough. Any more and he could bring the whole building down around them.

One of the faunus from the group spotted the glowing blue sword and pointed him out to the rest of the group. Half of them stopped firing at Beryl and turned towards him...

Too late.

He pointed it at the tight group of faunus and slashed, letting the energy escape. A blue, crescent shaped wave of energy raced towards them. A second later, the group fell to the ground, burnt wherever the energy had hit them.

Not lethal, but they would hurt like hell for months to come.

He looked around, panting from strain. Every white fang member in the room was lying on the ground, unconscious or otherwise incapacitated. The whole fight had taken less than a minute. The hostages were untouched, despite all the gunfire.

"Wow." He said loudly. Beryl looked over to him, flung her arms up, and laughed. They both walked towards the center of the room, peeling off their stolen masks.

"They were pushovers." She said, still grinning. He let himself smile back at her.

"Alright, let's open the front gates and let the police come in and clean this up." He said, turning towards the barricaded front entrance, all set to just go home and collapse into bed.

"Screw you, kid." That was the only warning he got before he felt something sliding in between his ribs. He looked down to see a sword blade sticking out of his chest. He glanced over his shoulder, seeing the leader with a massive dent in his mask where he had hit him.

How the hell did he sneak up behind him?

Beryl suddenly turned into a blur for a split second as she quickly sliced the leader 4 times in the back, all non-lethal and shallow, but enough to incapacitate him.

He frowned and tried to push the blade out of his body. All that accomplished was getting the head back into him and the rest of the sword hanging loosely from his back wound. The front of his shirt was already getting sticky with blood, and he could feel a warmth spread across his back.

"You okay?" Beryl asked casually, but still with a tint of worry in her voice. The faunus fell to the ground, bleeding from the two slashes Beryl gave him.

"Yeah, just...can you pull this thing out?" He asked, equally casually. He felt a sharp pain as the blade slid out of his body, and fell to his knees, already woozy from blood loss. The blade had probably went straight through his vital organs. He couldn't afford to pass out now, otherwise he really would die. He focused past the dizziness and concentrated all his aura towards the wounded areas. It almost immediately went to work.

First, it repaired any ruptured blood vessels to stop his bleeding. Then, it repaired the tissue of any organs that were damaged, then his flesh, and finally his skin.

After 10 seconds, he was none the worse for wear, save for a large blood patch on the front and back of his shirt. He was, however, extremely pissed.

He leaned down and grabbed the incapacitated leader, bringing him right up to eye level. "_You _are coming with me."

-o-

"What's the situation in there, does anyone know?"

"There are still hostages in there. We need to get them out somehow."

"Where are those helicopters going, did someone see what direction they're going?"

The police outside were still bickering about their course of action, still split on what to do. Everything went quiet when the front entrance of the museum just...opened. The few experienced police officers didn't let that shake them and pointed their weapons at the opening gate.

A hand stuck out from inside the museum and waved, then two people walked out. A teenager with a blood-stained shirt was holding a faunus wearing a white fang mask in front of him.

"I'm friendly," The teenager called out. Another teen walked out of the museum behind him, both hands in the air. The police officers slowly lowered their weapons in confusion.

"This White Fang officer was leading the attack." The teen said loudly, shoving the faunus onto the ground. He then quickly raised both hands in the air, to show he wasn't armed.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, the police officers who were closest stepped forward to arrest the leader.

"The rest are in there." The boy muttered to them when they were close. They gave him a blank glance, then called in what he just said over the radio. A majority of the force then moved inside to the museum, cuffs in hand.

One of them broke off to talk to the teens. "You'll have to follow us. We need to ask you some questions."

The boy dropped his arms and grimaced. Of course they did.

-o-

"What's your name?"

"Sable."

"Last name?"

He sighed in frustration. He was really too tired for this right now. "Does that really matter?" He asked abrasively. "Look, just get me whoever's in charge in here. I don't want to talk to you two and wait hours for the information to make its way up."

"You don't know what's going on here, do you pal?" One of the detectives in front of him slammed his hands onto the table.

"We'll ask the questions here, amigo." The other one said.

"I...what language is that?"

"Didn't you hear what he just said, pal?"

"Please stop calling me that."

"WE'LL BE THE ONES ASKING THE QUESTIONS HERE!"

"Alright! Calm down!"

"Would you like some cookies?"

"I...what?"

"Answer the question, pal."

"...sure?"

They produced a plate of cookies from god knows where and slid it in front of him. He blinked in confusion. Is this how police interrogations usually go? The Vale Police Department is screwed...

The two stared at him. He stared back in confusion, until one of them gestured towards the plate. He glanced down at it, and hesitatingly reached for a piece.

"ALRIGHT!" The...other...other cop pulled his pistol out and knocked the plate of cookies off the table, "WHAT WERE THE WHITE FANG DOING IN THERE?"

"Holy sh-" Sable swallowed hard. He was pretty damn sure that these cops were unstable, and wouldn't put it past them to shoot him right there. "Okay, first off, put that gun away. I'm sure that's illegal...everywhere."

"Mm...yes, it is." A door opened behind the two detectives and a man with silver hair and the strangest glasses walked in. _Oh thank god._

"Hey, pal, you're interrupting an interrogation in progress."

"Your sergeant is looking for you two gentlemen." He said, quite calm. The two detectives immediately got up and left the room without another word.

"Thank you. So much" Sable told him sincerely. Those two detectives had shaken him up in ways the White Fang raid couldn't.

"You're very welcome." The man said, as he took a seat on the other side of the table. A few moments passed, where the man just analyzed him.

Sable fidgeted, unsure of what to do. "Er.."

"Do you know who I am?"

"No clue."

The man smiled. "Professor Ozpin, headmaster at Beacon Academy."

Sable stopped and let that sink in for a bit. "...oh." He was too tired to really care, actually.

"There was a curious lack of recordings in there," He said after sipping from his mug, "How did you and that young lady manage to take out a museum full of faunus without killing any of them?"

"Well...by being very quiet and staying out of sight." Sable replied vaguely. He was really just stalling until Ozpin inevitably asked for more information.

"Can you at least tell me if you know why they were there?"

"Oh, right, "Sable said. He took out his phone and turned it on. "I took some pictures of what they were trying to grab."

Ozpin took the phone, giving him another look. "You are very resourceful." He looked down at the pictures. "Interesting."

Sable was expecting more comments, but that was it. He passed the phone back.

"Well, I think I've seen enough. Would you like to attend my school?"

Sable blinked. They had barely talked for a minute and he was already offering him admission? Hell, Ozpin didn't even know his name yet.

"I thought potential students had to turn in a transcript for review." He said, probing a bit further.

"Well, usually, yes. But potential students don't usually thwart a terrorist attack," He paused again to sip from his mug. "Heavens know you've earned a spot at the academy."

Sable buried his face in his hands and let out a humorless laugh. "I was actually going to apply anyways. But I lost my transcript just yesterday."

"How unfortunate." The professor said, also finding the irony amusing, "I assume you still want to attend?"

Sable let his hands fall from his face and shrugged. "Sure, why not? I don't have anything better to do anyways."

10 minutes later, he met Beryl outside the police station. Before she said anything, he showed her the note that Ozpin had written for him.

"Well, then," She grinned. "You didn't need the transcript after all, did you?"

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just go home."

-o-

"Glynda, I need you to do something."

"Yes, what is it?"

"The White Fang want dust. We'll need to keep a close eye on any areas with a store of dust in them, at least for the next few weeks."

"Very well. I'll keep an eye out for trouble."

-o-

"Let me get this straight. _Two people _stopped the whole operation." Roman seethed.

The faunus he was addressing was only a recruit, and had only escaped by running away from the fight and hiding in a remote area of the museum. After everyone else was arrested, he hid his cat ears under his hat and tucked his tail into his pants, and slipped away.

He had the look of someone desperately trying to remain calm, but Roman could see him shivering in fear.

He turned towards Adam, an annoyed look on his face. "I thought you said your people could handle it."

Even behind the mask, Roman could sense the scowl. "Describe them." Adam curtly ordered the nervous faunus.

"We-well...there was a boy and a girl-"

"A _boy _and a _girl_? Is that referring to their gender or their age?"

"Roman, be quiet," Adam's tone had a hint of menace in them. "Continue."

"I didn't really get a good look, they were moving really fast. The boy was wearing one of our masks, so all I could see was he had black hair and er...and there were points when his arms and legs glowed a deep blue."

_An aura user. _Adam mused. That should narrow things down, aura color was unique to everybody. Though he never heard of specific body parts glowing. It must have been related to the boy's semblance.

"The girl had rusty red hair...and..."

"...Anything else?"

"Ah..er...the boy was wearing full black. That made him even harder to see in the chaos. The girl was wearing some kind of dark turquoise jacket and jeans. That's all I got." The faunus finished up, swallowing nervously.

Roman groaned. That could apply to any number of...teenagers in Vale. He waved the faunus away, who promptly stopped shaking and double timed it out of the room. Roman sighed and looked at Adam after he left.

"We lost too many of your members in that raid," Roman said to Adam, pacing around the room, thinking. "Not to mention everyone will be looking out for your people now."

"We still need more dust." Adam said, watching Roman pace.

"I know that," He was getting slightly angry at Adam's nonchalant attitude towards this whole thing. Did he think that Roman would pick up the slack and things would proceed as planned? As if.

"I'll take some of my boys, raid some small places in the meantime." He said, wagging his finger at Adam, "You look for something big in the meantime to make up for this."

**A/N:**** Wow this was a lot shorter in my head.**

**Yes, there are going to be OCs, and they are ****part**** of the central figures in the story. If that****'****s not your cup of tea, bail now.**

**That being said, I'm not going to introduce so many OCs you can barely keep them straight (like some other fanfictions). It dilutes their personality and development to the point where you can't care about any of them. So, going off that, I won****'****t be accepting any OC submissions, ****at least not **

**Bits and pieces of my OCs, and their relationships, will be expanded on later. For now, their general personality is all you get.**

**Hope you liked my attempt at action. I got way too wordy at times, but I'm still building the ground works for both their abilities now so I don't have to later. **

**Reference to RT shorts here. It's pretty obvious.**

**Still not going to conflict with volume 1 canon, though I did debate including Adam in anything before volume 2 was released. I**** guess I'll ****deal with that when it comes.**

**As always, review please. Thank you frontmandude, lego, and Nightraze for reviewing the last chapter. Keep it up, it'll keep me going.**


	4. Sneak Peek to CH 4

**New Life**

"Now, remember Jaune, the first thing the ladies look for is..?"

"...Confidence?"

"_Yes, _confidence!"

Jaune palmed his red face as his mom finished tightening the back straps on his chest piece. This will be stamped in his memory as the last talk he had with his dad before he goes to Beacon.

"Now, just remember that when you get there. I'm not expecting you to bring back a special lady your first year, but it wouldn't hurt either." His dad was continuing his discussion, not noticing Jaune's face. His mom spun him around to check if the front was secure, and he noticed her smirking at him.

"Dad..." He said weakly, but he was ignored. His mom apparently didn't feel like helping, only walking around back again and testing the firmness with a couple of firm yanks and taps.

His dad had been enthusiastically talkative ever since Jaune had shown him the acceptance letter Beacon had sent him a week ago. He was also extremely receptive of Jaune's explanation that he had been taking lessons secretly on the side, not even bothering to inquire exactly what kind of classes he had taken, or even to test him out.

Jaune had thought that was a bit strange, but he had went along with it without complaint. As the weeks went on, though, he had to constantly push back the thought of his dad's face when he comes back a month later.

Right now, he just basked in the rare moment when his family was together and happy.

"Alright, you ready to go?" His dad asked. Jaune shrugged and gestured towards his mom, who finished yanking on his armor and gave a thumbs up.

"He's good to go." She said, seemingly to clarify the meaning of her thumbs up. His dad rolled his eyes and clapped a hand on Jaune's shoulder, pulling him closer to the door.

"Now, you remember how to use your shield?" He asked as he pushed open the door.

Jaune was reminded of the heavy weight on his hip. He had to actually lean the other way to keep his balance. "Hit the button to turn it into a sheath, again to turn it into a shield."

"Right. So simple that no one can possibly mess it up."

Jaune felt like he could take that bet, but he just nodded instead. The two reached the car, and his dad opened the trunk and put Jaune's suitcase in, after fumbling with the key for a bit. The family never really used it, but his dad insisted that he personally take Jaune to the skyport. So now, he was trying to figure out which way to put the key in.

"Ah! Got it..." His dad mumbled as he tried to jam the key in, then cursed and turned the key to the correct side and slid it in. He rotated the key and the locks popped open.

"Alright, come on." He said as he rapped the hood of the car. Jaune swallowed nervously. He was having second doubts about getting into a car with a driver that had trouble opening the door.

Ah well. At least crashing would delay him from going to Beacon. He stepped into the car and shut the door.

"Let's go." Jaune said. His dad raised his eyebrow at him.

"Seat belts."

"Oh, right." Jaune clicked the seat belt into the button and they were off.

The trip passed in relative silence for a good amount of time, save for the occasional comment or curse about other cars on the road. Jaune suspected that it partly had something to do with his dad focusing on the driving, and his own nervousness at his dad's driving skill.

It wasn't until they were approaching the skyport that his dad finally spoke up and broke the silence. "So, Jaune...I'm going to be honest with you."

"Hm?"

"I didn't really think you'd make it into Beacon. Or anywhere else, really." He cleared his throat awkwardly and tapped his finger on the wheel.

Jaune stared. Did he really think that he could tell? Really? He could see he was leaving his dad hanging, though, so he acted surprised for his sake.

"Er...really?" Well, he gave it his best shot.

"I just want to let you know that I'm really proud of you getting this far with your own persistence." He continued. Jaune mentally groaned. This was just what he needed before going to Beacon, more pressure. Thankfully, they were pulling up to the curb now, so he didn't need to stay long.

"Thanks, dad. I'll try not to let you down." He nodded and smiled rigidly before getting out of the car to get his suitcase. His dad quickly shut off the engine and followed suit.

"Remember to give us a call at least every week." He said to Jaune's already retreating back. Jaune waved over his shoulder and gave a thumbs up without turning around, not wanting to have his dad place more hopes on him.

He was barely through the door when he heard two voices that he recognized from the back of his mind.

"So why didn't you go before we left the house?" Jaune turned to the right sharply and saw the two teens from the museum, both lugging around suitcases. The girl's luggage was at least twice the size of the boy's. Jaune gulped as he recognized the boy that he had taken the transcript from. What was he doing here?

"I don't know! I was...really nervous." The girl protested somewhat weakly.

"One would think that would make you want to go even more. You _defy _logic." Jaune quickly turned around and walked the other way as they started approaching, taking out his tablet and trying to look busy.

"How about you drop your snark for a second, it's not helping."

"Alright, fine, let's ask someone.."

Jaune gulped as he heard the footsteps approaching, and he nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around nervously to look at him.

"Hey, blondie. Remember me?" Jaune shook his head, hoping that denial would somehow help him. "I'm the guy that...er...knocked you over." He sidelong glare at his companion, who didn't seem to notice.

"...oh." Jaune just replied numbly. He found that he couldn't look him straight in the eyes without feeling guilty about exploiting him.

"You're going to Beacon too?" He asked, eyes glancing down at the ticket in Jaune's hand.

Jaune knew he couldn't stay here anymore after that. "Sorry, just remembered..." He mumbled, before quickly jogging away.

"Hm? Wai..." But he had somehow disappeared into the crowd already. Sable stared in bewilderment for a few seconds.

"Er...did I say something?" He asked Beryl, not really looking for an answer.

"Knowing you? Maybe." And there was the expected unwanted answer. He shook his head in exasperation.

-o-

"You know...Ruby...you don't need to see me off." Yang muttered, barely coherent as Ruby led her to the boarding gate for Beacon. Ruby rolled her eyes at that comment. Yang was apparently still suffering from exhaustion and hangover enough that she still hasn't computed that Ruby was attending Beacon as well.

Ruby had to fight to not stumble under the weight of her sister, luggage, and Crescent Rose itself. They were attracting a lot of stares that she tried to ignore, but she wasn't really experienced with dealing with a large amount of stares.

"I'm not here to see you off, Yang." _Although you're probably going to forget about that comment in a few seconds. _She thought to herself as she finally saw the gate. Why couldn't their parents come just to help her move all the dead weight?

She finally reached the ticket taker, who was giving her a very strange look. She shifted Yang's weight to one side, awkwardly taking the note Ozpin had given her, and slipping Yang's ticket out of her pocket.

"Er...hi." She said, handing the two passes to the taker and shifted the weight back to the center. After a short lingering look, the taker turned her eyes to the two pieces of paper.

"I assume you're Ruby Rose?"

"Um, yes. That's me."

"Figures. You're the second one today to give me one of these." She said, stamping the note. Ruby blinked in surprise.

"The second one? There was someone else who had Ozpin's recommendation?"

"Yeah, he went through just a few minutes ago." She said, almost bored. She gave Yang a look and tilted her head to get a better look at her face. Not to verify her identity, just wondering what was wrong with her before she stamped the ticket and passed it back to Ruby.

**A/N: Sorry for the long update time. I've mentally told myself that I would update weekly, and it was technically weekly...even though it was Monday to next Saturday...this chapter is a lot shorter and rushed because I've been doing a bunch of things, namely college orientation and moving to another country, and I really don't like it. **

**I'm going to update this along with uploading the next chapter, just didn't want to leave you guys with nothing for an undetermined amount of time. This will be expanded and make sense, think of it more as a prototype, or a sneak peek.**

**However, I may be on vacation, so updates will slow. I'll try to work on it on my phone, but no guarantees .As always, review and spread the word if you like this so far. It'll let me be happy and write more. Thank you lego for the review.**


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